B is also for ...

Bento Ballet Bag. 

I found this tutorial for a little tote bag that I totally loved: the Very Shannon Origami Bento Bag. I've already made three and need to make at least three more. I made two for RG and JE for their dance class bags, and one for a friend as her birthday gift. My other three girls want them too - SM also takes dance but I haven't gotten her bag done yet because I had to do the birthday dresses first.

Anyway, the original tutorial mixes 3 different fabrics and doesn't line it. I used one solid cut of fabric and lined it to give it a little more strength and just for better looks. This is JE's bag. RG's bag has the same plain pink lining, and her's is pink with white Swiss dots on it. The birthday gift bag was a couple of shades of purple. Also, on the gift one, I left off the box corner seams so it can be reversible. The box corners do give the bag better shape, but it's fun to have it reversible.

And here's little Miss JE coming home from her ballet class with her bag carrying her shoes. Hooray for dance class! And she loves the bag.

B is for buttons

More birthday dresses - another B word, and another Holiday challenge entry!

RG chose her pattern - the Oliver + S music box jumper (same as SM in May), and chose her fabric at JoAnn. It totally suits her. I made the pattern according to the proper sizing (altered for SM) but gathered the skirt rather than pleating it. I wish I'd made it a little longer for her, but it's fine.

She also chose the buttons on the back, which is the fun part. Note that they're doing the ombre thing - light at the top and getting gradually darker as they go to the bottom. The clothes I make are still super simple and basic, but I'm getting a little better at adding details and making things more personalized.

A is for applique

I followed along, by reading but not sewing, with No Big Dill's "Sew All 26" challenge for herself and loved it. (I love her projects and photography anyway.) (Also, I've realized that one of the things that makes a sewing blog is the photography and settings ... and that's not going to happen here because I don't have time to drive all over just to find cool places to take pictures of the clothes I make, or set up fancy little photo shoots. You're stuck with my house as the background of pictures shot with my phone. Sorry. I'll try to keep the mess out of the frame.)

ANYWAY ... that was a rant ... I've thought about doing a Sew the Alphabet challenge myself when I finish some other things, but recently thought ... Wait. I can do it as part of all my other sewing! Between now and Christmas, the projects I'm doing fit in with A-B-C-D anyway! I need to figure out E-F-G because the quilt (my first quilt!!!) I've already started working on fits with H.

So. We start with A - applique. I'm doing an exchange with a quilting group I joined at the beginning of the year, and received a gorgeous "quilt picture," as my girls call it. This, for now taped up to the wall in my sewing area as inspiration, until I can figure out how to frame it and put it in my living room. Isn't it awesome?!?

SM loves it and wanted to make one herself for Grandma's birthday gift. I haven't learned yet how to piece quilts, especially into pictures, so we went with the applique method. I gave her a fat quarter of fabric (fat quarter = 18 x 22-inch cut of fabric) in blue, and she went through my scrap box to figure out all of her pieces. She cut and arranged for an entire afternoon one day, getting it all laid out. I did all the sewing to attach her little teeny pieces, and she did the binding. We didn't use batting or any quilting because it's a wall hanging, and, well, I'm out of batting right now.

SM using the machine by herself for the very first time!

Happy (late) birthday, Grandma!

I also did an applique on a t-shirt dress for TA's birthday - it took me a couple of attempts. The secret - stabilizer! Don't skip it. I wondered if I could get away with that, but no. I got about halfway around when the whole thing decided to get snagged in my machine. I pried it out and ripped a hole in the shirt in the process. So I removed the heart (lots of work with the seam ripper since the stitches were so teeny and compressed together) and started over, this time with stabilizer. And I covered the hole in the shirt. I need to reinforce a couple of sections of the stitching to make sure the edge of the heart is fully covered and doesn't start fraying in the laundry, but I got it on there in time for her birthday party at the park and she loves it!

Little Miss TA is 3 now!